Help! Advice needed

Snowwy

Hi,

First post, not a new user but could do with remaining anonymous for the time being in case anyone reads who knows my normal username

Right, I have been told today my position is possibly being made redundant. My job is still there however, it will be passed to another member of staff in a restructure. I have worked for my employer for 1 year 11 months. The reasons they are stating for my 'potential' redundancy are performance related issues (ie. that things that should have been done have not been done, that the other member of staff will be more competent in the role).

To give a bit of background, the role I currently undertake is completely different to any role I have ever undertaken. In the time I have been employed I have had NO formal training and it is quite a specialised job. I originally joined the company as a part time administrator however, within a few months it became clear that there was an area of the business needing a dedicated resource and I became that resource. I have recently announced my pregnancy (I am 19 weeks next week) and since mentioning it, there has been one senior manager who has hardly spoken to me. I have had no formal disciplinaries during my time with the company.

Apologies if this is a bit of a rambling post, my head is a bit all over the place

I have to attend a meeting next week to discuss the outcome. I think my question at this stage is, what if anything can I do? What should I be asking at the meeting?

There's a huge part of me feels that if I wasn't pregnant none of this would be happening but thinking that way is probably not going to help me any

Thanks for any advice

Googlewhacker

The company are treading on dodgy ground as they announced it after you announced you were pregnant, if it was genuine then they have nothing to fear and will be able to prove its a genuine redundancy but you do need to get some proper advice. I am guessing you are not in a union, if not check your house insurance to see if you have legal cover.

If not wait for SarEL/Lazy Daisy to post on here.

SarEl

I agree that detailed legal advice should be sought, but you may struggle to demonstrate that your potential redundancy (because you haven't actually been made redundant) is a result of your pregnancy, since you seem to agree that your performance in this role has not been good. As I see the employers argument, they created a role (which is a restructure) because there was an identified need for the work to be done. There still is a need for that work to be done, but they have decided to restructure in such a way as that work will be done within another role. So your job isn't there anymore - the work may be but that is not a job. The work is going to become part of another job, a job that already exists. That is a classic redundancy scenario - a position is being deleted. So that leaves you to prove - and I am afraid in this case you will have to prove it - that the decision was made on the grounds of your pregnancy, rther than what appears, on the face of it, to be a reasonable business decision to restructure roles, resulting in one being made redundant.

Of course, that still doesn't mean that you will be made redundant - you could also be redeployed into a suitable alternative position. So I think that at least one of the areas you would want to explore is whether there are any other jobs available.